Ups and Downs in Life

Ups and Downs in Life punishes, and none can bind with bonds like His! [But to the righteous, God will say], ‘O soul at peace, return to your Lord, well-pleased, well-pleasing. Join My servants. Enter My Paradise.” (89:15-30) Every person passes through two sets of circumstances in the world—sometimes finding or receiving things and sometimes losing them. Both eventualities, meant to gauge human reactions to different conditions, are for the purpose of putting one to the test. If the individual starts to boast when he receives something and acts negatively when things are taken away from him, he has failed the test. The other type of person is one who would bow down before God and thank Him when he received something, and when things were taken away from him, he would once again bow down before God and express his humility. It is the second type of person who has been called the contented soul (an-nafs almutmainnah). In this world, whatever we receive in terms of wealth or in any other forms, serves the purpose of test. They are not desirable in themselves but are rather a means to achieve another purpose. The purpose is that one should make use of these things in such a way that they become a means of salvation in one’s future eternal life.